Initially announced in 1999 under the title of Librium, the film was produced by Jan de Bont's production company, Blue Tulip Productions, with most of the budget secured in a Dutch tax incentive deal thanks to de Bont's Dutch citizenship.[6] Emily Watson was cast in May 2000,[7] with Christian Bale cast the following month in June of that year.[8]
Filming began on October 19, 2000, and ended on December 10, 2000. Most of the filming used locations in Berlin, due to its unique mixture of fascist and modern architecture. According to the visual effects supervisor Tim McGovern, who worked alongside Wimmer, the fascist architecture was chosen "to make the individual feel small and insignificant so the government seems more powerful". The modern architecture of Berlin emphasizes the futuristic and stolid appearance of the city-state of Libria. Thick walls are represented by an abandoned East German military base, while the exterior of the city, where many of the surviving rebels reside, was filmed in decrepit neighborhoods of East Germany. In addition to the geographic location, a few European art directors also made substantial contributions to the production.[9]
Equilibrium's locations include:[9]
- Olympic Stadium (Berlin), built for the 1936 Summer Olympics.
- Deutschlandhalle, also built for the 1936 Summer Olympics.
- Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
- Berlin Tempelhof Airport, construction of which was begun before the Nazi era, but which was completed during World War II and displays characteristics of the Nazis' architectural style.
- Bundestag (Berlin U-Bahn) station, a modern subway station near the new Reichstag building along with long tunnels of the Berlin U-Bahn underground railway. At the time the film was made, the Bundestag station was unopened, but in 2009, it went into service.
- Decrepit East German neighborhoods, as well as an abandoned massive former GDR military base.
- The EUR district in Rome, Italy, built during the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini.[10]
Although making a science fiction movie, Wimmer intentionally avoided using futuristic technology that could become obsolete, and he also decided to set his story in an indeterminate future. "I wanted to create more of an alternate reality than get caught up in the gadgetry of science fiction," he explained. "In fact, there's no technology in Equilibrium that doesn't already exist. It's more like a parallel universe, the perfect setting for a parable."[9]
